CMCO: Hoteliers face cancellations, domestic tourism set to face ‘major impact’

KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 15):  Local hotels are experiencing booking cancellations in light of the new conditional movement control order (CMCO) imposed in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, said the Malaysian Association of Hotels.

Malaysian Association of Hotels chief executive officer Yap Lip Seng told the Malay Mail in an interview that hotels have already “recorded up to 15% occupancy drop immediately after the country was hit with another wave of Covid-19 infection”. 

“The major impact is on overall domestic tourism, and with the increase in cases since October 1, we saw immediate reactions from the market with popular destinations receiving cancellations for both room reservations as well as events. 

“The spike in cases had generally raised concerns throughout [the country] regardless of locations,” he explained.

Yap told the news portal that the association anticipates “a drop of up to 15% in occupancy rate over the next few weeks”. 

“(It may) even be more now that Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya — which are a major source of the domestic tourists market — are placed under CMCO.

“This would at least cost the industry between RM60 million to RM100 million in revenue, and if the situation doesn’t improve, we will be forced back to the early days of the pandemic with more restrictions on movements including tourism, which would push the recovery further,” he explained 

The industry was supposed “to enter a recovery period for the tourism sector in the middle of 2021” but with the latest CMCO, Yap said “it will likely be by end of next year”. 

In an earlier interview with The Edge just before the CMCO order, Yap already revealed that hotels “in several states began to receive cancellations for bookings following the spike in Covid-19 cases at the end of September.”

He said cancellations rose sharply on Oct 1 when new cases jumped to 260.

Yap told the weekly that before the recent spike in infections, occupancy nationwide was averaging at about 39%, “mainly driven by crowds over the weekend”.

However, “with the current situation, we can expect it to drop to 20% to 25% in the next couple of months”.

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